Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1887-06-16
PROGRESS IN SURGERY.
A Process Whose Discovery Has Proved
Great Boon to Mankind.

= ETOcc8S whose DlBcOvory Has Proved =
Great Boon to Mankind.
When the renowned English SURGEON.
John Hunter, century ago, trans
planted the spur of a young chicken
from its leg TO its comb, as well as
into the comb of a second bird, and.
found that it not only lived but grew,
he established fact that has led to (
brilliant era in the progress both of
surgery and biology. We have in that
fact most impressive illustration of
the independence of cell life in the
animal tissues. The principle has
been applied to the relief of a great
variety of local affections formerly
considered incurable. The practice of
skin, muscle and tendon grating is
now a recognized and common pro-
cedure. In the repair of wounds,
whether caused by disease or injury,
the healing process is identical, how
ever varied the results, in the shape of
new skin, new bone, new tendon or
new muscle.
Skin-grafting is great boon in the
management of extensive ulcers, or
large sores after burns, or as an adj
juvant to plastic operations, or the
rectifving of deformities, inherited or
acquired. such as the formation of a
nose, eyelid, lip, or other missing part.
Bits the size of millet seed are shipped
from healthy skin and adjusted with
the raw surface next the wound, to
which they soon adhere, not only
growing themselves, but stimulating
growth from the margin of the wound.
The process of repair. cicatrization
or scar formation, excited by the trans
planted fragments, be they pieces of
skin, muscle or tendon, seems almos
magical. The gratis soon become islets
in the wound, around which growth
goes on, while the nearest coast margin
of the sore is active in response; soon
an isthmus connects the two active
points and subdivides the wound. By
this process of grating, painful con-
fractions and deformities are pre-
vented. Moreover, it is not necessary
that the graft be of the same nature rs
the wound tissue. The resulting scar
or cicatrix conforms or adapts itself to
the tissue in which it grows. Thus
piece of muscle grated into skin
wound develops scar like skin.
Large spaces are filled by the process
of repair in short time. When a tiss
sue is divided, and the divided surfaces
remain in contact, union results in the.
shortest time. as is ofte2 seen in case
of a cut finger. When the surfaces
are separated, the gap between them
fills in with a new material, which or
ganizes and assumes in time the char
acter of the divided tissue. In tendon
wounds, with loss of substance, this
latter change is readily seen. II a.
piece of tendon from an outside source
is placed in the interval, the formative
power of the wound is stimulated and
FASTENED. Just how much is due to.
the exotic, and how much to the in
creased nutrition of the wound stimu-
lated by its presence, is difficult to de-
termine. New blood vessels and nerves
form and push into the new tissue, and
soon its cells draw nutriment and re-
ceive impulses from the same sources
as its new-found neighbors and friends.
OF course the field for the exercise Of
this art is constantly widening, and
new applications of the principle will
be heralded from time to time.-CO2-
gregatiOnGliSt.